


Untitled

by hellabaloo



Category: Band of Brothers
Genre: Character Study, Drabble, Drabble Collection, Episode: s01e06 Bastogne, Gen, M/M, Sentence Fiction
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-12-27
Updated: 2012-12-27
Packaged: 2017-11-22 16:04:21
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 10
Words: 1,075
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/611663
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hellabaloo/pseuds/hellabaloo
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Sentence fics, drabbles, and false starts that I either don’t have time to finish or can’t remember what I meant to do with them.</p><p>Doc Roe-centric</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Hell

**Author's Note:**

> Yuletide's kicking my butt into gear about posting these snippets I've had squirreled away on my hard-drive and various notebooks for years in some cases. I'd love for them to turn into more, but like the summary says, I don't have the time/inclination/inspiration for that to happen at the moment. If they strike you in the right way, please feel free to take them as prompts or a jumping off point. It's part of the reason I'm posting them.
> 
> Each snippet is unconnected to the others, and I'm listing the appropriate characters/relationships in the title in case you're just here for something specific.

It’s Sunday again, and the chaplain’s turned the hood of a spare jeep into an altar. We’re freezing our asses off in a clearing trying to forget about earthly cares, that the Krauts may not respect Sunday morning like we do, while he reads from the Good Book.

“…he also will drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is mixed in full strength in the cup of His anger; and he will be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels and in the presence of the Lamb,” the chaplain is droning on, and not for the first time I’m convinced Hell isn’t all fire and brimstone. It’s as fucking cold as Bastogne.


	2. (Doc Roe, Babe Heffron)

Had you asked him, when he was new to Easy, who had the meanest right hook, Babe Heffron would never have even thought of Doc Roe. He learned, painfully, that when push came to shove, and you really fucked up, Gene never pulled his punches.


	3. Silence (Doc Roe)

Gene always figured he'd remember the cold as the worst part of Bastogne. So he was surprised when he had dreams about the winter of 1944—the type of dreams that, had his grandmère been alive he would've gone to her about—they weren't about exploding trees or the deafening, frightening sound of Kraut artillery, the cold and the snow, or even the constant fear of not really being able to help at all. Instead, they were about the oppressive quiet. To his mind, that empty-sounding forest, hiding so much menace, was far worse than a bombardment. Those, at least, you could prepare for—“Dig your foxholes, boys, and remember cover this time!” Lipton's voice echoed through the trees—could be trained for. But Camp Toccoa was a world away and a lifetime ago when those damn Germans thought they would try to blow them to Hell and back. You just had to find some cover and pray you'd come through it.

But the waiting, the silence…that's what Gene's nightmares were made of. The silence held every worst-case scenario.

Normally Gene liked the quiet. Not the otherworldly stillness Bastogne could have, but that type of quiet that if you really listened to, you couldn't miss the hum and chirps of cicadas or the gentle buzz of mosquitoes. The type of quiet Gene feared most was the kind that nearly suffocated you; like the whole place, soldiers, medics, even the trees were holding their breath, just waiting for the whistle of a shell, the booming crash, and the inevitable call he hated and dreaded. The anticipation that came with the stillness, that mocking and nearly ever-present sensation, unnerved him but didn't scare him. He may not have hands as good as his grandmère or Renee, but he was capable. The anticipation made him feel as useful as a wet-nosed, baby-faced replacement who still remembered what if felt like to sleep in an honest to goodness bed.

The alternative, however, was no better. Running from one panicked shout to another, trying to save as many as possible, straining for even a whispered, “Medic,” lost in the chaos. Each and every time he willed the German guns to miss; the thick silence that followed when they did their jobs too well broke Gene's spirit as much as his comrade's blood dried under his fingernails.


	4. Fragile Strength (Doc Roe/Dick WInters)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Title from the song of the same by Sara Bareilles

“Sir. I—in our differen’ ways we need someone to share our burden with. I ain’t a big enough man to carry your pain an’ mine.”

Roe kissed him then, full of sweetness, apology, and, what hurt the most, goodbye.


	5. (Doc Roe, Dick Winters)

That poor replacement—still fresh-faced and wide-eyed, completely different from the Toccoa men—had shot Moose.

Winters could still hear Eugene Roe’s indictment ringing in his ears.

“Yeah, but you oughta! You know, you are officers, you’re grown-ups, you oughta know!”

Winters heard Doc Roe, loud and clear. And knew he was right. What pained him the most, more even than the truth was the unsaid. Easy’s medic was trying to say, “I can’t fix everyone.”


	6. (Bull Randleman, Roy Cobb)

“Cobb’s happier than a pig in shit when he’s stirrin’ up trouble.”


	7. (Shifty Powers, Doc Roe)

It was amazing he hadn’t noticed it before—Shifty prided himself on being able to spot German snipers as easily as had hunted deer before the war. But it wasn’t until Foy that he noticed Doc Roe didn’t ear gloved. Probably hadn’t since they got to Belgium. Maybe it was partly because he always kept his hands in his pockets. Or maybe because even with all the action, Shifty hadn’t needed the help promised in those hands. Even in Carentan he only got scratches from flying shrapnel and excited chickens. Cold, stiff fingers were a soldier’s worst nightmare; unresponsive, numb, unable to fire your weapon meant death.


	8. (Babe Heffron, Doc Roe)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Can be read as pre-slash or gen.

Babe asked him once why it took him so long to call him by his nickname instead of Edward. Eugene didn’t know how to tell him that the only nickname _he’d_ ever had, other than the endearments from his grandmère—mon chéri, mon cœur—was Doc. He couldn’t associate his new name, the title, the occupation, with the same familiarity that calling Edward Heffron from South Philly “Babe’ or quiet, sharp Will Powers “Shifty” that it meant to them. So Eugene didn’t say anything, told Babe to get back to patrolling and let him keep calling Gene by a name he didn’t think he’d ever quite live up to.


	9. (Ralph Spina, Doc Roe)

Spina didn’t even flinch if someone hollered, “DOC!” If they were calling for Doc, they meant Gene. They have been trained to yell medic, but when Buck Compton saw Muck and Penkala get hit, he called for Doc. Not that Spina minded too much. Gene was quicker, more focused, and more soothing than he could ever hope to be. It would always be Eugene Roe that the men of Easy thought of when they called for Doc.


	10. (Dick Winters, Doc Roe)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Can be read as pre-slash or gen.

It’s not until Bastogne that Winters felt like he really knew where to start when figuring out Eugene Roe. Watching Easy’s medic was like watching the line on a foggy morning. At a glance there was just white, fog and snow, but wait long enough and you started to see the trees, sometimes even soldiers moving quickly between foxholes. He didn’t know how the thought came to him, but now that it had, it started to become all he could think about. Maybe if he watched Gene more, he’d start to understand the soft-spoken man from Louisiana.


End file.
